Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1887-08-20
JEDGE WAXEM ABROAD.
HE AND MANDY RESTING ON TIL
SHORE OF LAKE COMO.
The Judge Recites Some Lines Which.
Mandy >Recognizes-Fiug Hats Plenty
and Art Scarce in Mi:an-The Climate
Unsuited to the wayback Congressman.
Especial Correspondence

s'u1, gazing on 10 tine raptIrouS picture,
can't help hut become poetic. and occasional
throw of line or two, Mr.. Editor, sort 0
to fill up with, you know. This morning
after hasty breakfast l retired to my apart
nIents. leaving Mandy down stairs. and no
long afterward found her on our benc
| uiiuer the tree by the lake
| Mandy SAYS, going over to her. IA
water is poetic in this sunny cline. Listen t,
what have wrote:
A deep vale,
| Shut out by Alpine hills from the rude world,
| year clear lake margined by fruits Of gold
And whispering myrtles;
chasing softest Skies cloudless
save with rare and ros-ate shadders
| palace lifting to eternal heaven its marble
walls
From out glossy bower of coolest foliage must
| cal with birds.
"Did you write that all by yoreselfw sh,
| says to me inherent like
AAs SPONTANEOUS, Mandy,"I says to her,
"as these streams of cleer warter bust from
| the glashiers of the mountain; as unstuddy vel
as the burds sings among the green bows of
these here Olive and orange trees That
what makes poetry SO bewtiful, my dear But
why ask the question, love." l continnered.
tappin her III courtly fashion on the shoder.
Because, Bash," she says, "t sounded t,
me like old times, away back yonder, you
know, when was silly gal and played actor
parts Friday afternoons at school. One veal
the Rev. Obadier Beasly, of Wayback that
now, and me took some poetry where Their.
was lady named Pawleen Lions, and Clau,I
Chestnut, and Claud told Pawleen that very
same thing, as shoar as am Mandy Waxen,
and not Mandy Beasly. Mebbe you kin fool
other women with poetry, Bash, but I've
knowed you too long, and you ought to o
knowed better. It's purity, though and YOU
can read it over agin for old ank signs sake
read 1t over agin, of course, but WASH
thinkin OF poetry. l was ref1ectin on til.
mistakes man, partickerly a married man
Is likely to make when he thinks he ca,
ketch bnri by putin salt on its tail, and
moreover. what bunglin sort of lyin congress
men does when they go outside OF politics OF
craftsmanship -.
We have been in this beautiful country for
lew days recooperatin as it WAR, after oul
long Journey through Italy, and preparin
ourselves for pastors new in the hire ATTITUDES.
We come here from Milan, which is unde,
thirty mile from Lake Como but never pu,
lillian and Como together in my mind like
do New York and SarIytogy. Somehow
always read about Milan in the georrapb,
anu Como Ill poetry, and kinder though
passengers for Como took wings some plac
or other, and lit thar after f1oatin q snoil O,
golden clouds in azher heavens. But they
cont; they git right into the cars in til.
Milan depot, and an hour and a half later
they air ir fairy land, whar green hillsides
comes down to drink of blue waters: VIVA,
the pink checked rose lifts up its face to NEE,
the kisses of the orange bloom; whar lofty
mountinre, seered by age, wares liver crowns;
upon ther brows, and on Their feet ware san
uels OF olive wood and lemon, and whar al
mater sets screen upon the land er rocks upor
the wave, SO bewJiful and still that heaven
seems to have slopt over and poared half its
loveyness on this bewty spot.
Agin l have flew the track and got into
poetry, as the above goes to show. 1t is nv
mater and l can't help it, even if Mandy is
agin me ON this pint What want to do
now Is to drap poetry and take up jograph,
and statistics i'll a few brief but pointed re
marks on Milan. -.
In a previous letter to yore valuable iour
nal l spoke about the graiule dyin' out of Tn.
plug hat as the traveller got further AVA,
from London. The funeral procession he'll
on till we got to Milan, and thar it ended, g,
rather thar was gap in it. l seen more vel
dressed men with plug hats on in that town.
than any place in Italy, and seen more
business American civilization thar in fl teen
minutes, than i'll Rome, Naples, Venice and
Florence combined.
Milan amt much on art. and whar art is
skeerce, business civilization is bound To
thrive.
They've got one church in Milan, that bares
the same relation to the city, that the Fus,
Baptist meetin' house in Wayback bares To
ayback; refer to the cathedral. 1t is the
greatest piece OF arkiteckturral gimcrackery
l have ever saw, and cost enough money to
carry every congressional election in our
CRATE and glorious republic fer dozen years,
l can mighty easy see why politics is at secb
a discount III this affect despotism. when so
much money Is wasted on religion. The
other churches in Milan air as pore and mean
as the stables and outbuildins on a morpid-
Sed farm, ana the cathedral minded me right
along of one big pertater III a hill takin all
the sap and substance from the little ones
Mi an is a lively place and don't git her
ivin' out of the past like some other Italian
towns. Her leadm' square, the Plata de.
Duoino they call it, is as purity as any in
Drop, and is lit up with electricity ever,
night. All the street cars center thar too,
and mcn can't git lost to save his neck eff
he only keeps in sight Of a car track Tina,
Is new pavements on most of the streets.
bilt strait out from house to house without
curbstone or gutter, and the people walk in
the middle of tie street about as frequent as
they do on the sidewalks. This habit though
is common in all Italian towns Mandy tried
1t at first, but she liked to got run over four
or five times and now she hugs the wall like
she used to hug me in our courtin' days.
We air gcin to git out of Italy in few
days, and l want to say Of it in partin tina,
it needs good deal of improvement in its
people to be up with the times. 1t has got
lots of art and lots Of soldiers and fine ships
and churches. but it amt got school houses
enough, and tell it gets them it can't keen I'D
with the procession Of progress, which is ever
speedin' on with our own free government and
free schools in the Iced. The climet amt
energetic, but thar is warmer countries that
air not behind the times, and she has before
her the examples of the old Romans that
ruled the world and fer hundreds Of years
kept Italy in the fore front of nations.
We air not seein many Americans on our
travels yit. We expect to find some in
Switzerland, and it is goin to do me a power
OF good, fer am bilin over with some re-
marks l have got to make on the EUROPEAN
situation. I'd give a months sallery right
now fer Waybacker. a store box and a